Historical Introduction
ther East, until he came to the Seres or Chinese, whom he describeth as γένος παιδαριωδέστατον καὶ εὐτραπελὠτατον—a most childlike and bland race,[1] at which blandness being pleased, he thought to remain there some while.
Now it appeareth that he had already formed his mysterious notions concerning the Divine Essence residing in numbers and sounds; and it was these same ideas that contributed not a little to the shortening of his stay in the country of the Seres. For some time after his advent there, his philosophic meditations on the multiplication table considered as a source of evil were rudely disturbed by a most hideous and awful tumult, which perturbed him not a little, since he perceived that if his disciples were ever to apprehend such a clamour, not only would they ascribe no divinity to sounds, but would even go to the opposite extreme. And
- ↑ For confirmation of this read Harte (Cervus Californicus).
and philosophers of the age. [See Life and Times of Helluo XV., but lately imprinted for Kegan Saul at the sign of the Pig and Whistle in Paternoster-row.]
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